Summary: Part 2 focuses on things we learn from parents.

This is part two of my series that I have titled “Beneath His Wings”. Last week I focused on how we are under the wings of Christ. When we become a Christian we immediately come up under His wings and our jobs are to try to get as many people as we can to join us. Under His wings exists everything we need to walk through this world. Our foundation Scripture last week was taken from Psalm 91:2-6 which says “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust.’ Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day; nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness; nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.” As I shared with you on last wee, when we understand that within Christ we have a place of refuge when we are going through trials and we do not have to walk in fear when we are facing these trials and tribulations. This understanding allows us to spread our wings to allow others to receive what we have received through Christ.

This morning I want to focus on our being under the wings of our parents. When I use the term parent I want you to generalize this term to include your parents by blood, adoption, foster care or whoever it was that was the parent figure for you. The person who was a parent to you took you under their wings so that you could learn how to exist in this world. Part of this teaching focused on how to treat others. Whether it was good or bad, whether you had good teachers or not, you learned something about how to treat others. This morning I want you to focus on the good that you learned. Those good things that you learned from your parent figure have enabled you to take others under your wings and I will explain shortly how this takes place. But first I want to tell you about something I saw on a nature show.

I was watching this nature show once about birds. On this show it demonstrated how the mother birds teach their chicks to fly. It is rather crude, but extremely effective. When the small chicks grow to a certain size it is time for them to stretch their wings and learn to fly. Now these chicks are very comfortable staying in the nest and allowing the mother birds to continue feeding them (it is the mother bird who knows when the small chicks are ready to leave the nest.) When that time comes, the mother bird eases the chick to the edge of the nest and then pushes them out. At that moment, two things happen. Either the chick will start flapping its wings and start flying, or it will look around and wonder what happened as it crashes to the ground. If you have ever seen small birds on the ground dead beneath its nest chances are that they did not pass the test of spreading their wings. This phenomenon happens with humans also when we “kick” our kids out of the house when it is time for them to go. As a matter of fact, we call parents whose kids have left the house “empty nesters” which comes from what happens when the mother birds kicks her chicks out of the nest.

I. Honor Father and Mother

With that story in mind, turn to Exodus 20:12. Exodus 20:12 records the first commandment that carries a promise. It states the following: “Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.” Honor has several definitions, but there are two that I think warrants our attention this morning. The first is “to have high regard or respect for” and the second is “adherence to principles considered right.” Both of these definitions of honor allow us to fully walk under the wings of our parents. When we respect our parents, we listen to them with open ears and open hearts. What we learn from them, we adhere to it or follow those teachings throughout our lives. These two elements are crucial to how we learn to spread our wings.